It’s not the end of the world that fascinates engineering physicist Daniel Friedmann, it’s the beginning.

Forget the Mayan Long Calendar, Friedmann has come up with a formula that converts “Bible time” to years as we know them in calculating the age of the universe, the sun, and life on Earth. The surprise? Friedmann’s calculations consistently match scientific estimates derived from the study of fossil timelines, the solar system and the cosmos.

In his book The Genesis One Code (www.genesisonecode.com), the CEO of the aerospace company known for building the space station’s robotic arm, describes how he developed the formula – 1,000 X 365 X 7,000 –from references in religious texts.

“The formula is simple,” Friedmann says. “The Bible tells us in Psalms that one day for God is 1,000 years for us. We know that 365 days is our solar year, and from other studies of the scriptures we can conclude that one creation day in Genesis equals 7,000 God years.”

“Multiply those numbers and you find that in years as we know them, each creation day is an epoch of 2.56 billion years,” Friedmann says. The age of the universe, when calculated using the formula, is 13.74 billion years. Science puts it at 13.75 billion, plus or minus 0.13 billion.

Friedmann’s formula produced 20 other Bible/science matches for events described in Genesis, They include:

• According to the Bible, the sun appeared to mark days, seasons and years on Day 4 of creation. Calculating from the end of the fourth day, Friedmann puts the “creation time age” at just under 4.79 billion years ago. Science says the sun is 4.57 billion years old, plus or minus 0.11 billion years.

• Science has determined the simplest form of life first appeared on Earth 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago. Using Friedmann’s formula, calculating from the beginning of Day 5, life appeared 3.52 billion years ago.

• Complex life – most of the major animal phyla – appeared in a fairly rapid “Cambrian explosion” about 530 million years ago, give or take 5 million years, according to fossil records. That was four hours into Day 6, according to Friedmann, 532 million years ago.

• Day 6 was when “God planted the garden in Eden,” according to the Bible. Friedmann calculates plant life appearing a little later in the “day,” starting 426 million years ago and concluding 106 million years ago. The fossil record indicates that the first primitive macroscopic plants appeared about 420 million years ago, with seed plants and conifers diversifying 280 million years ago and flowering plants showing up 130 million years ago.

The creation text, Friedmann points out, comes from books in the Bible whose existence are acknowledged by all three of the Abrahamic religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam. The polarizing debate has been between the world of science, with its numbers derived from scientific observation; and religion, with the Genesis creation narrative that appears to contradict scientific evidence.

“I focused on the ‘what’ and ‘when’ because those questions can be addressed with a detached, scientific perspective,” Friedmann says.

“Now the debate can focus on the ‘how’ and ‘why.’”

About Daniel Friedmann

Daniel Friedmann is CEO of MDA Corp. aerospace company in Canada, specializing in robotics used on the international space station. He has a master’s in engineering physics and 30 years’ experience in the space industry. He has published more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific papers on space industry topics. He is also a longtime student of cosmology and religion.